Q.Generally anthrax disease affects

Anthrax (Bacterial Disease)

Anthrax is a serious bacterial disease caused by the bacterium Bacillus anthracis. It mainly affects cattle, sheep, goats and other grazing animals, but it can also infect humans — which makes it a zoonotic disease (one that spreads from animals to people).

The cause and a key feature — spores

The organism, Bacillus anthracis, is a rod-shaped bacterium with one especially important property: it forms tough, resistant spores. When conditions are unfavourable, the bacterium becomes a spore that can survive in soil for years, resisting heat, drying and disinfectants. Grazing animals pick up these spores from contaminated soil or feed, and once inside the body the spores revive into active, multiplying bacteria that produce powerful toxins — causing severe illness and often rapid death in animals.

How humans get it

Humans usually catch anthrax through contact with infected animals or their products — hides, wool, hair or meat. Depending on the route of entry, it can appear as a skin (cutaneous) infection, or the more dangerous inhalation or intestinal forms.

Why anthrax matters historically

Anthrax holds a special place in the history of biology and medicine:

• It was the disease in which Robert Koch established that a specific bacterium causes a specific disease, helping formulate the germ theory and Koch's postulates. …